Cathy Jones

Life and Career

Catherine (Cathy) Jones was born April 6, 1955 in St. John's, Newfoundland. Jones attended Holy Heart of Mary, an all-girls Catholic school. At the age of 17 she joined her brother with the Newfoundland Travelling Theatre Company for a summer of touring the province. She is the youngest of a multi-talented family—brother Andy Jones is an actor and writer, and another brother, Mike Jones, is a noted filmmaker.

In 1973 she joined the Codco comedy troupe in Toronto, whose original members included Mary Walsh, Diane Olsen, Tommy Sexton, Greg Malone, and Paul Sametz. Their first production, Cod on a Stick, Another Fun Food Show, was performed at Toronto's legendary Theatre Passe Muraille. It eventually took them back to St John's, where Andy Jones and Robert Joy joined them and they continued to perform together until 1976. For the next 10 years, Jones and the others worked together in various combinations until they formally regrouped for the CODCO television series, which debuted in 1988 and ran for five seasons on CBC-TV. The Codco series lineup included Cathy, her brother Andy, Greg Malone, Tommy Sexton, and Mary Walsh. It was taped in Halifax and produced by Salter Street Films.

Jones has appeared in several films directed by her brother Mike Jones: The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood (1986), Secret Nation (1992) and the short Congratulations (2000); and in the black comedy Young Triffie (2007), directed by Mary Walsh. In 2002 she had her own television special, Cathy Jones Gets a Special, and she has written for Just for Laughs (2005), The Halifax Comedy Special (2005–05), and The Winnipeg Comedy Festival (2006).

In 2000, Cathy Jones received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Memorial University in Newfoundland.